The Taming of the Transvaal
The course of the war north of the Vaal after the battle of Diamond Hill
up to the date of Lord Roberts' arrival at Belfast seven weeks later was
tortuous and difficult. The main Army changed front as soon as Pretoria
was reached and faced to the east in the direction of the retreating
Transvaal Government. Its line of communication became a prolongation of
its front; its left flank towards the north was open; and on its rear
was the unsubdued country west of the capital in the direction of
Mafeking and Vryburg.
Through this district, which is intersected by ranges running generally
east and west, and which contains some towns of importance, the troops
set free by the relief of Mafeking advanced in two columns towards
Pretoria and Johannesburg. The southern column was Hunter's Xth
Division, which after easily occupying Potchefstroom and Krugersdorp,
passed through Johannesburg, and on Hunter's being sent into the Free
State was broken up at Heidelberg. The northern column, under
Baden-Powell, occupied Rustenburg and met with little opposition during
the month of June. It was intended by Lord Roberts, if all went well,
that this column should eventually take up a position on the Pietersburg
railway, north of Pretoria, which was unprotected in that direction.
The inactivity of the Boers seemed to show that they had really lost
heart, and that an awakening such as that which came a few weeks after
the entry into Bloemfontein was improbable. Earlier in the month of June
there had been negotiations for peace, not only between subordinate
leaders in the Free State and Natal, but also between the two
Commanders-in-Chief in Pretoria; and although they were broken off, the
fact that they had occurred made the silence more significant and gave
hope that the enemy was reconsidering his position.
The illusion was soon dispelled. Whether owing to the natural resilience
of the Boer character after a brief phase of doubt, or to the news of De
Wet's successful attacks on the railway in the Free State, the
smouldering fires broke out anew early in July. Delarey, who had checked
French at Diamond Hill, came out of the east to quicken the west; the
baffled burghers of Snyman, released from the siege of Mafeking, were
trickling vaguely into the district; a force under Grobler of Waterberg
was reported north of Pretoria; an incursion was made across the Vaal
from the Free State; and commandos appeared south of the Magaliesberg
near Olifant's Nek and Commando Nek, thus threatening the movements of
Baden-Powell, who was operating north of the range and who had occupied
Commando Nek and the adjacent Zilikat's Nek on July 2, leaving only a
small force at Rustenburg. Five days later the Boers failed in an
attempt to recapture the town, which was saved by a detachment of the
Rhodesian Field Force.
This force, which was under the command of Sir F. Carrington, was
composed mainly of mounted contingents from the Colonies. It had been
raised a few months before at the instance of the British South Africa
Company to hold the northern frontier of the Transvaal, which after
Plumer's departure for the south was unguarded, and to deny Rhodesia to
the Boers should they attempt to break out northwards. It was from the
first under a sort of dual control which militated against its
efficiency. The Company made the arrangements for its enrolment and
equipment, while the War Office provided the staff. It was in
difficulties from the first. By a somewhat strained interpretation of a
treaty between Great Britain and Portugal, and after some weeks of
diplomatic discussion and in spite of a protest naturally made by the
Transvaal Government, the Rhodesian Field Force was permitted to land on
Portuguese territory at Beira in April and to move up country. Its
advance was further delayed by a break of gauge on the railway between
Beira and Buluwayo; it was pulled hither and thither, and was never able
to co-operate effectively with the general operations. It was moved in
driblets, and some details did not reach Buluwayo until September. A
portion of it came along the Western line, and Rustenburg was saved by
the Imperial Bushmen. At the end of the year it was disbanded.
[Sidenote: Map, p. 240.]
On July 11 three blows were struck by the Boers with success. The
attempt on Rustenburg drew back Baden-Powell, whose place at Zilikat's
and Commando Neks was taken by a regiment of regular cavalry which
happened to be passing that way. As it was required elsewhere, a body of
infantry was sent out from Pretoria to take over the Neks, and on the
night of July 10 Zilikat's Nek was held by three companies and a
squadron. Next day, after a struggle which lasted throughout the day, it
was captured by Delarey, and two guns and nearly 200 prisoners of war
fell into his hands. The disaster, the first of its kind in the
Transvaal, was due to two causes. The British force actually at the Nek
was insufficient to hold it; and the main body of the cavalry stood
aloof. The latter was no doubt in a dubious position. It was under
orders, which were brought by the infantry relief, to meet Smith-Dorrien
nearly twenty-five miles away on July 11; and when the enemy was seen
occupying a strong position on the Nek, it assumed that assistance would
be of no avail, and beyond a short artillery bombardment nothing was
done. Even the squadron holding Commando Nek was ordered to retire at
midday. A relieving force was sent out from Pretoria, but it arrived too
late to avert the disaster.
The cavalry thus delayed was intended to reinforce a column under
Smith-Dorrien, who had come up into the Transvaal with Ian Hamilton's
column, and who was marching from Krugersdorp to take off the pressure
from the south on Baden-Powell at Rustenburg; Olifant's Nek, over which
the road to the town passed, being in the possession of the Boers. On
July 11, when Smith-Dorrien had marched about ten miles from his
starting point, he met a commando at Dwarsvlei, which was so well
handled that not only was he compelled to retire on Krugersdorp, but
also had much difficulty in bringing away his guns. The failure was
chiefly due to the non-appearance of the cavalry, without which he did
not feel himself justified in standing up to the enemy.
On the same day another cavalry regiment was in trouble. Onderste Poort,
a few miles north of Pretoria, was attacked by Grobler of Waterberg, and
while reinforcements were on their way he drove back still nearer to the
capital the force which was holding the outpost, and forced one troop to
surrender.
The situation was alarming. The districts west and south-west of the
capital were infested by energetic commandos which had thwarted all
Baden-Powell's and Smith-Dorrien's efforts to suppress them, and Grobler
was threatening Pretoria from the north. There were indications that the
enemy's plan was to transfer the opposition from the east to the west;
and if so, then Lord Roberts' force, whose front after Diamond Hill
faced eastwards, would have to conform to the movement. A few weeks
previously it had been weakened by the departure of Hunter's strong
column for the Free State, and now Lord Roberts was compelled to redress
the balance by calling up Methuen's Division from Lindley to
Krugersdorp, where it arrived on July 18. French was ordered to operate
north of Pretoria with cavalry, and a column under Ian Hamilton[49] was
also sent up.
Methuen marched at once on Rustenburg, and cleared Olifant's Nek on July
21. The scheme of shutting up the Boers in it failed, as Baden-Powell
was unable to close the northern exit, and they escaped with slight
loss.
At the beginning of August the situation was, if anything, worse. The
events which succeeded the occupation of Bloemfontein were repeating
themselves in the Western Transvaal. Methuen had been recalled from the
Rustenburg expedition to deal with an outbreak on the line from
Johannesburg to Klerksdorp, which fell into the hands of the enemy;
5,000 Boers were reported to be on or near the Magaliesberg; a small
British force was besieged in Brakfontein, west of Rustenburg, on the
road to Mafeking; De Wet was at large in the Free State, and it seemed
probable that he would come up into the Transvaal and add to the
trouble.
At the end of July Ian Hamilton's force was diverted from its movement
towards the north and ordered westward to relieve and bring away
Baden-Powell; and Carrington was instructed to co-operate from Mafeking.
Lord Roberts had decided to abandon Rustenburg and Olifant's Nek and the
greater part of the Magaliesberg. These detached positions detained more
troops than he could spare[50] and were difficult to supply. Ian
Hamilton's trek lasted only a few days. He recaptured Zilikat's Nek, and
on August 5 brought away Baden-Powell, who left Rustenburg most
unwillingly and who was ready to sustain another siege in it. Lord
Roberts, however, would not heed his repeated protests, and the only
section of the Magaliesberg held after the withdrawal from Rustenburg
was that lying between Pretoria and Zilikat's and Commando Neks.
Rustenburg and Olifant's Nek had called for the diversion of three
columns in succession: Smith-Dorrien's, which did not reach them, and
then Methuen's and Ian Hamilton's; and the abandonment of them was
imperative. From the west Carrington made an attempt to relieve
Brakfontein on August 5, but was compelled by the presence of the enemy
in superior force to return to Mafeking. The relief was effected ten
days later, not from the west, but by Lord Kitchener with a column that
had been engaged in the pursuit of De Wet.
Suddenly all the operations were deranged by the news that De Wet had
crossed the Vaal at Schoeman's Drift on August 6, and the greater part
of the British Army in the Transvaal was either directly or indirectly
turned on to the pursuit of one man; Lord Kitchener, as usual when
energy and pushing power rather than tactical skill were looked for,
being placed in general charge of the operations. The two most
determined and unfaltering men in South Africa were now pitted against
one another.
De Wet's escape from the Brandwater Basin on July 15 was soon discovered
and he was unable to get a good start. Broadwood's and Little's mounted
brigades were sent after him, now and then taking long shots at him or
worrying his rearguard. His object was to conduct Steyn and the Free
State Government officials into the Transvaal, where they could
co-operate with Kruger. He chose the route which appeared to him, and
rightly so, to be the line of least resistance, namely, towards the Vaal
Drifts near Potchefstroom; instead of making for the upper reaches of
the river, on the other side of which Buller was established on the
Natal railway.
It was soon found impossible to overtake him, even with mounted troops.
The only course was to shepherd him into a fold from which he could not
escape. The tracery on the map of his movements and of those of his
chief scout Theron, intersected by the reticulations of the pursuing
columns, resembles a spider's web in disorder.
[Sidenote: Map, p. 292.]
Finally he was hemmed in on the left bank of the Vaal near Reitzburg. On
the right bank Methuen, supported by Smith-Dorrien, was watching the
drifts. He did his best, but his force was insufficient for the purpose,
and on August 6 De Wet, with it is said no less than 400 wagons, entered
the Transvaal at Schoeman's Drift, the greater part of Methuen's force
having been sent to hold a drift lower down. Methuen doubled back and
fell upon the Boer rearguard, which, though driven out of successive
positions, maintained itself long enough to allow the main body to
escape unscathed.
De Wet's subsequent movements greatly puzzled his pursuers. He divided
his column into two portions which did not always march in the same
direction, and it was therefore difficult to discern the ruling movement
of his trek. At one time it appeared that he was about to re-cross into
the Free State, and the plans for the northward pursuit were temporarily
suspended; to be resumed when he had received an allowance of one day's
start. It is probable that his original intention had been to return to
his own country as soon as he had put Steyn and the officials into the
Transvaal, leaving them with an escort to find their own way to Kruger,
and that he was prevented by the appearance of a strong column under
Kitchener on the left bank. As a Free Stater, moreover, he would be
disinclined to give his services to the Transvaal.
Kitchener crossed the Vaal on August 8, and hung to De Wet's right rear,
Methuen hanging on to the left rear; but neither was able to do more
than clutch vainly at the skirts of the elusive column. In front of De
Wet, Smith-Dorrien was holding the Klerksdorp railway, but again he
misled his pursuers, and instead of trekking north after he had crossed
the Gatsrand, a movement which Smith-Dorrien anticipated and provided
for, he changed direction, and on August 11 passed over the railway at a
section which had been left unoccupied on Smith-Dorrien's right flank.
[Sidenote: Map, p. 240.]
Lord Roberts saw that Methuen's and Kitchener's pursuit would probably
fail, and that De Wet would reach the Magaliesberg. Ian Hamilton was
instructed to prevent him crossing it, and on August 11 he was
specifically ordered to occupy Olifant's Nek. Commando Nek was held by
Baden-Powell. There was a third pass, the Magato Nek, a few miles west
of Rustenburg, for which De Wet was apparently making, and which seemed
to be his only possible way of escape, as it was confidently assumed
that the other passes were held by British troops. It was, therefore,
only necessary to head him from Magato Nek, and this was done by
Methuen. But the movement threw De Wet towards Olifant's Nek, which to
his great astonishment was not occupied, and through which he passed
with Steyn on August 14 and shook off his pursuers. Ian Hamilton had not
been made to understand that the actual closing of Olifant's Nek was an
urgent matter; and he, in fact, informed Lord Roberts that he did not
propose to do so except indirectly by a movement which would command the
approach to it.
In this, the first of the De Wet hunts, nearly 30,000 British troops
were directly or indirectly engaged in heading or pursuing over an area
of 7,000 square miles. Nine columns blindly zigzagged and divagated to
false scents and imperfect information in chase of one man encumbered
with a civil government on the run and several hundred wagons. Again and
again the fowler's net was cast upon the migrant, who always wriggled
through the meshes. In one month he trekked 270 miles from the
Brandwater Basin to the north of the Magaliesberg, with British troops
continuously to his flanks, his front, and his rear.
It would have been regarded as the most notable personal exploit of the
war if De Wet had not himself twice repeated it under circumstances of
even greater difficulty. It must be acknowledged that his daring and
resolution deserved success. He did not attain it by the means of
followers eager to serve a trusted and beloved leader, for they by no
means rose to him. When he reached the Vaal he was careful to throw the
burghers' wagons across the river first of all, knowing that their
unwillingness to leave the Free State would be overcome by their greater
reluctance to sever themselves from their oxen and stuff. He owed his
success mainly to the power of a strong will to make weaker wills work
for it; and in a less degree to the accuracy of the information which
Theron, his chief scout, obtained for him.
It is at least doubtful whether Lord Roberts did not take De Wet too
seriously. Was the capture of a _guerilla_ leader worth the withdrawal
of so many British troops from the main operations, and would not the
sounder strategy have been to ignore him? If he had been severely let
alone, he would hardly have done more than that which he did with the
strength of an Army Corps against him, and his prestige with his own
people would not have been so surely set up.
The escape of De Wet was an incident of war, which, having regard to all
the circumstances of the campaign, could not be made impossible. Columns
working independently under directions from Head Quarters cannot be made
aware of all that each has or has not done, and must take many things
for granted; and the information of the enemy's movements which reaches
them from the same source must often be received too late for effective
action. If Lord Roberts had listened to Baden-Powell's protest against
the evacuation of Rustenburg and Olifant's Nek, De Wet would probably
have followed Cronje to St. Helena; but that does not prove that the
policy of withdrawing from remote and exposed positions was unsound. All
that can be said against it is that it chanced to be carried out a few
days too soon.
Steyn and the officials left for Machadodorp. De Wet felt that his own
country had a claim upon his services, and desired to return to it
without delay. He divided his force, leaving the greater part under
Steenekamp north of the Magaliesberg, himself going south with a small
commando. The division materially aided his return, for it was not known
for certain at Head Quarters with which portion he was marching. While
he was in imagination being chased north of Pretoria, he was in fact
scaling a rough mountain path, for all the passes had been closed, near
Commando Nek, and looking down from the heights upon a British force by
which he was not discovered. On August 21, after an absence of sixteen
days, he recrossed the Vaal, and entered the Free State. The net result
of all the labour, all the efforts, and all the consequent distress and
exhaustion to which the British troops had willingly subjected
themselves, was to re-establish De Wet as a greater power for mischief
than ever.
The Free Staters under Steenekamp joined Grobler of Waterberg, but the
combination was hustled to the north out of striking distance of
Pretoria by Baden-Powell, whose purely military service in South Africa
ceased soon after. He had been selected to raise and to command the
South African Constabulary, a semi-military body, which it was hoped the
approaching end of the war would ere long permit to take over some of
the duties of the troops.
For some weeks after the escape of De Wet the various columns operating
north and west of Pretoria were engaged in patrolling the country. They
nowhere encountered serious resistance, but Delarey was neither taken
nor crippled.
[Sidenote: Map, p. 292.]
While these events were occurring in Lord Roberts' rear, he was
advancing eastwards from Pretoria. The battle of Diamond Hill was
followed by a brief period of quietude in the east as well as the west.
The objective of the British Army was the railway from Pretoria to
Komati Poort, on which the Transvaal Government, covered by Botha at
Balmoral, was now dwelling at Machadodorp. The movements of Lord Roberts
were for some time controlled by the situation in the Free State and the
Western Transvaal, which called more pressingly for attention than the
eastward advance.
Early in July a column under Hutton was sent out to feel towards Botha's
left. As he was opposed and made little progress, Lord Roberts a few
days later reinforced him with French and a cavalry brigade, and on July
11 the combined columns thrust back the Boers from their positions at
Witpoort, a few miles south of Diamond Hill. Botha had arranged with the
commandants on the other side of Pretoria for concurrent attacks on the
British forces in the vicinity of the capital, and his own was the only
operation that was foiled on July 11. French's success, however, could
not be followed up. He proposed to raid the railway near Balmoral, but
Lord Roberts had been made anxious for the safety of Pretoria by the
news of the affairs of Zilikat's Nek and Onderste Poort, and recalled
him. Hutton was ordered to remain where he was, about twenty-five miles
south-east of the capital, with a reduced force.
There were indications that an attack not only on Pretoria but also on
Johannesburg was contemplated by the enemy, in collusion with plots for
risings against the British which were hatching in each city. It was no
time yet for an eastward advance. The successes north and west of
Pretoria stimulated Botha to attack what he supposed would strategically
now be the most vulnerable section of the perimeter of defence, namely,
the section facing him. If it had not been weakened by the withdrawal of
troops to the west, troops would probably have been withdrawn from the
west to meet him, and the task of Delarey thereby lightened. Either
alternative would forward his policy.
[Sidenote: Map, p. 240.]
East of Pretoria Pole-Carew with the XIth Division was in touch with
Hutton. Botha recalled Grobler of Waterberg from the north, and on July
16 threw himself upon Pole-Carew and Hutton, near Witpoort. The brunt of
the attack fell upon the latter, who, though at first pressed back and
outflanked on his right, recovered himself and forced the enemy to
retire. His immediate opponent was B. Viljoen, a leader who showed great
military capacity in his management of the action. Against the XIth
Division Botha demonstrated only. The chief incident of the affair was
the holding of an outflanked and commanded kopje position by a few
companies of the Royal Irish Fusiliers for six hours.
The scheme for the eastward advance, which Lord Roberts did not feel
himself justified in initiating until after the affair of July 16, was
that French should rejoin Hutton and take charge of the right; with Ian
Hamilton, brought down from his northward demonstration against Grobler,
on the extreme left north of the railway, while Pole-Carew advanced with
Lord Roberts centrally along it.
[Sidenote: Map, p. 292.]
The advance began on July 23. French, with the natural spirit of a
cavalry officer, chafed at being restricted to the slower progress of
Pole-Carew's infantry and proposed to push forward boldly and cut the
railway east of Middelburg, but Lord Roberts was reluctant to part with
the only cavalry he had, and vetoed the movement. Botha was soon
frightened out of Balmoral, which had been his Head Quarters since the
battle of Diamond Hill, and which was entered by Lord Roberts on July
25. Two days later French rode into Middelburg.
The eastward advance had now gained possession of eighty miles of the
Delagoa Bay railway, but the De Wet trouble and the disturbed state of
the Western Transvaal made the continuation of the movement unsafe, and
Lord Roberts called a halt. It was also advisable to wait until supplies
had been collected at Middelburg, and until Buller, who was coming up
from the south, was in a position to co-operate. Lord Roberts returned
to Pretoria, leaving French in charge. Ian Hamilton, the emergency man,
was sent to the west to deal with Delarey and De Wet. Towards the end of
August Pole-Carew advanced to near Belfast, where he hoped soon to
report himself to Buller.
Nearly three months had now elapsed since the battle of Diamond Hill.
The progress of the Transvaal campaign was not very apparent, but it was
real. Botha had been driven back along the Delagoa Bay railway, and
neither the outbreaks in the Western Transvaal nor the meteoric
incursion of De Wet had availed him. Nothing that had occurred elsewhere
weakened the western advance to an extent that gave him an opportunity
of effectively withstanding it. Buller was approaching, and Lord Roberts
was no longer dependent upon one line of communication. The fugitive
Free State Government had been driven into asylum with the fugitive
Transvaal Government. No commandos were at large which could seriously
threaten Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, or Pretoria; and the only organized
body which the enemy could bring into the field was confronted by a
British Army and had the barrier of the Portuguese frontier behind it.
There was good hope that in a few weeks the already undermined fabric of
Boerdom would totter to the ground, and that the worst that could happen
was that some of the fragments might not fall clear of the British
troops.
The arrival of Buller's force from the south gave Lord Roberts, who
returned from Pretoria on August 25, the reinforcement justifying the
resumption of the eastward advance. He found the troops unfavourably
placed for immediate action. Botha was posted on each side of the
railway near Belfast; the junction of his right with his left, which had
different fronts, forming an obtuse salient angle. The greater part of
the British force was south of the line and prevented by the nature of
the ground from undertaking an enveloping movement on the enemy's left.
Buller had kept the cavalry to heel, and it was lying compressed between
him and Pole-Carew, who was entrenched round Belfast.
Lord Roberts' first act was to distribute over a wider front the
conglomeration of troops, which were hampering each other's movements.
French with his own cavalry, but without Buller's, was sent north of the
line to face Botha's right flank and to clear Pole-Carew's left flank,
while Buller worked up from the south towards the line.
The movement began on August 26, and by the afternoon French, having
made a wide detour, had established himself north of Belfast; thus
enabling Pole-Carew to leave the town and extend his division in front
of the enemy's right. Buller's movement was at first directly
northwards, on account of the soft ground. His march, like that of
Pole-Carew on the other flank, was across the enemy's front, but neither
of them was seriously checked and the casualties were few.
Buller had proposed to move eastward in the direction of Dalmanutha as
soon as the ground permitted, but a cavalry reconnaissance discovered
the enemy posted at Bergendal, close to the railway. The position was,
in fact, the point of the obtuse angle formed by the two sections of the
Boer front, one of which faced S.W. towards Buller, and the other west,
towards Pole-Carew; and if it could be carried not only would Botha's
line be broken, but Buller would be in a good position to deal with a
retreat from either section,
The battle of Bergendal on August 27 was mainly a struggle between less
than fourscore Transvaal Police and two battalions and forty guns of
Buller's Division. The "Zarps" held a rocky ridge at the end of a spur,
where they were bombarded for three hours, yet when the infantry
advanced it was met with a vigorous rifle fire, which was continued
almost without intermission until at last the kopje was carried by
assault. The defence of the kopje was one of the most conspicuous feats
of the war on the Boer side, and it is noteworthy that it was made by a
body of regularly disciplined men. Owing partly no doubt to the
difficulty of reinforcing such an isolated position, no effective
support was given by Botha to the gallant little band, neither did he
trouble Buller seriously with artillery fire; and the commandos east and
north of the Zarps' kopje did little. He does not seem to have
recognized that Bergendal was not a mere strong post, but the key of an
unsound position which should at all hazards have been safeguarded. This
Buller saw at once, and he moved so as to meet with the least
interference from the enemy, who, having two fronts, could not act
solidly upon either of them.
The capture of Bergendal dissolved the Boer position. The commandos
facing Buller were driven off; and the right, which had been opposing
French and Pole-Carew so feebly that neither of them suffered a single
casualty, fell away. Buller went in pursuit, but was unable to worry the
retreat. Some commandos withdrew eastwards along the line, others broke
off towards Lydenburg and Barberton. The Boer Governments retired from
Machadodorp to Nelspruit. Buller crossed the railway, and on August 29
Helvetia was taken. Next day the British prisoners of war, whom the
Boers had brought away in the scuttle from Pretoria when Lord Roberts
entered the city, were released at Noitgedacht by their captors, who
were no longer in a position to detain them.
Botha had indeed been forced into retreat, but not cut off, and he
escaped with all his guns and his losses were comparatively slight. His
burghers were, as usual after a lost battle, demoralized and
disheartened for the time being, but not, as was thought by the British
Army, scared by their reverses into abject impotence. From the time of
the occupation of Bloemfontein _guerilla_ had been gradually taking the
place of organized warfare, of which Bergendal was the last act, and
which the burghers saw that they could not hope to wage successfully.
The history of the previous seven months showed what could be won by
_guerilla_, and what could be lost by pretending to be an Army. The fact
that they were no longer able to act as a coherent military body did not
permanently discourage them, and the struggle had not yet run more than
one-third of its weary course.
It was, however, the general belief not only in Great Britain but also
in the Army in South Africa, that the Boers had kicked their last kick
at Bergendal. There might be a final wriggle or two; but the end was in
sight, and before the first anniversary of the declaration of war, peace
would again reign in the land. These not ill-founded hopes justified
Lord Roberts' Proclamation of September 1, by which the Transvaal was
formally incorporated in the British Empire.
To prevent the enemy escaping to the north or to the south, and to
impale him upon the stakes of the Portuguese frontier, Lord Roberts
pushed forward three columns; one under Pole-Carew to follow the railway
towards Komati Poort, another under French to march towards Barberton,
and a third under Buller to occupy the Lydenburg district; to which
Botha had gone after the battle of Bergendal, and which if held by him
would leave in the possession of the Boers the best line of retreat from
the railway to the northern Transvaal.
Ian Hamilton, on his return from the west after the escape of De Wet,
was lent to Buller for a few days. The occupation of Lydenburg on
September 7, and of Spitz Kop four days later, drove Botha back to the
line at Nelspruit. Buller's operations were carried out with success in
a country more difficult than any that had yet been entered by the
British Army in South Africa. South of the railway, French spread the
net, casting it from Carolina to Barberton, which he entered on
September 13, and where he not only captured a considerable amount of
rolling stock and supplies which the Boers had shoved into the little
branch line, but also released a final remnant of about a hundred
British prisoners of war, most of whom were officers. He had advanced
through a country almost as difficult as that in which Buller was
engaged, and although the commandos opposing him had at first been drawn
away to the south by the report that he was making for Ermelo, they
returned in time to offer some resistance east of Carolina; but he
entered Barberton without the discharge of a rifle. Botha had sounded
the Cease Fire.
The Boers had found it necessary to consider the situation seriously.
They had been driven into a relatively minute area, which was morally
congested with a pair of Presidents and their parasites, remnants of
Government offices, superfluous commandants, and commandos some of which
were eager and some of which were not eager to continue the struggle;
and physically by the accumulation of stores, supplies, guns,
ammunition, and rolling stock which had been rammed down into the last
section of the Delagoa Bay railway.
Kruger was induced to lighten the ship which he had so signally failed
to keep on her course. He left Nelspruit on September 11 for Lorenzo
Marques, where he was taken under the protection of the Portuguese
Government, and where he remained until the eve of the first anniversary
of the opening scene of the drama, the battle of Talana Hill. On October
19 another nation offered him asylum, and he sailed for Marseilles in
the _Guelderland_, a cruiser of the Dutch Navy; thus symbolically
repatriating the French and Dutch emigrants who had quitted Europe for
South Africa in the seventeenth century.
The positions of Buller on the north of the railway, of French at
Barberton, and of Pole-Carew ready to advance centrally, made immediate
action imperative; but Botha was hampered by the presence of not a few
unwilling and unmounted commandos. These he sent under Koetzee to Komati
Poort and left to arrange their own destiny; and with the rest, which
numbered 4,000 burghers, he broke away in two directions, himself with
B. Viljoen leading the northward trek, while T. Smuts endeavoured to
escape southward into Swaziland.
Thus when Pole-Carew, who had been joined by Ian Hamilton and whose
advance had been delayed to allow French and Buller to get into position
on his flanks, reached Komati Poort on September 24, he found himself
hitting at vacancy with the wreckage of two lost republics around him,
derelict railway stock, disabled guns, abandoned ammunition, and burning
stores. Koetzee's men had disappeared, most of them into Portuguese
territory, which they had been partly persuaded and partly compelled to
enter by the Portuguese authorities, who, although they had regarded the
Boer cause with a more than benevolent neutrality during the earlier
stages of the war, now saw that a fight near the frontier would be a
most embarrassing episode; and, while offering an asylum to the
fugitives, threatened to allow Lord Roberts to land troops at Lorenzo
Marques if it were not accepted. On the 28th Pole-Carew was engaged not
in battle with the Boers, but in celebrating the birthday of the King of
Portugal, a singular interlude between the acts of the war drama.
Botha in making for the north hoped to establish his remnant and
cultivate the germs somewhere in the Leydsdorp or Pietersburg districts,
which were the only portions of the Transvaal not occupied by British
troops. Lord Roberts' expectations that they would be denied to the
enemy by the Rhodesian Field Force under Carrington were not fulfilled,
and he could not spare any of his own troops to occupy them.
Botha, preceded by a few days by Steyn, left the Delagoa Bay line on
September 17, and succeeded in scraping past Buller without serious
excoriation, but he was compelled to send the greater part of his force
under B. Viljoen by a circuitous route through the unhealthy lower veld.
The enemy was now to all appearances chased to the ends of the earth,
but throughout October and November roving bodies worried the railway
and detained a considerable British force upon it.
Commandos that could not be accounted for by the British Intelligence
Staff seemed to spring out of the ground. Trains were de-railed, raids
and counter-raids north and south were the order of the day. Lydenburg
was prowled upon. Botha and Viljoen, stirred by Steyn, hovered in the
north, and Viljoen went south to co-ordinate the several activities. On
November 19 he effected a temporary success at Balmoral, capturing a
small post and cutting the railway, but it served him little and he soon
retired.
Of the force engaged in the Komati Poort advance, the Guards' Brigade,
which the hopeful situation would soon, it was thought, allow to be sent
home, as well as French's cavalry and other troops, had been withdrawn;
and a column under Paget which was operating west of Pretoria had to be
called up to expel Viljoen from a position which he afterwards took up
twenty miles north of the railway at Rhenosterkop. The affair was the
only serious action during October and November.
French did not advance beyond Barberton. Early in October he was ordered
to clear the country lying between the Natal and the Delagoa Bay
railways. At first opposed by Smuts and subsequently impeded by bad
weather, transport difficulties, and constant sniping, his movement
resembled a retreat rather than a voluntary advance, and it was so
regarded by the commandos. When he reached Heidelberg on October 26, he
had lost half his oxen and a third of his wagons.
After the conclusion of the Komati Poort operations Buller returned to
England. No general officer serving in South Africa was regarded by the
non-commissioned officers and men under his command with greater
affection and admiration. The Natal Army was held together in spite of
disasters and failures by the personality of its leader. He had made not
a few mistakes, but they never lost him the confidence of his troops,
who, when he left their camp at Lydenburg, said farewell to him with an
extraordinary demonstration of genuine regret.
At the end of November the command of the British Forces in South Africa
was taken over by Lord Kitchener from Lord Roberts, who sailed for
England in the belief that the war was practically over. He had
completed the task which he had set himself when he landed at Capetown
ten months before. At that time hardly even a scout had quitted British
territory; now almost every mile of railway and every considerable town
of the two republics, except Pietersburg, was in the possession of the
British Army; the Boer Governments had been expelled; Natal was free;
organized resistance had ceased; the remnants of a baffled and
bewildered enemy were prowling aimlessly in small bodies. All the
precedents indicated a speedy termination of the War.
When Lord Roberts left the shadow of Table Mountain the last word in
Strategy and Tactics had been spoken, and the war gradually became a
problem in Mechanics. His strategy was freely criticized at first, but
it proved to be sound; and the only fault that could be found with his
tactics was that like a skilful chess player he always endeavoured to
defeat his opponent with the least possible loss on either side.
The organization of a European Army had been found inefficient for
dealing with Boer _guerilla_. The Army Corps fell to pieces as soon as
it landed in South Africa; and as time went on the Divisions, the
Brigades, and even many of the regimental units were one by one
liquidated and re-shuffled into columns.[51]
Lord Kitchener, who had been General Manager to Lord Roberts, was
admirably qualified to succeed him, and to deal with a situation which
seemed to call for the exercise of a strong will and of the power of
organization rather than for the display of purely professional
qualities, in which he was somewhat deficient. It is doubtful whether he
would have commanded a large army successfully on the field of battle,
but no better man could have been chosen to control the vast area over
which the British Forces were distributed.
[Illustration: Map.]
Notes:
[Footnote 49: Not the column with which he had come up to Pretoria with
Lord Roberts, and which after his accident had been taken over by
Hunter, but a newly-constituted column.]
[Footnote 50: Lord Roberts said that if he had been free to send Ian
Hamilton into the Free State instead of to Rustenburg, De Wet must have
been surrounded.]
[Footnote 51: After June, 1901, the classification of the South African
Army in Divisions and Brigades disappeared from the Army List.]